Note 2 — Chapter XXIX

Moore helped to bring this word into common use under the form of Finnian in his melody, "The wine-cup is circling in Alvin's hall." It is probable that he derived the word from Finn, and meant by it "followers of Finn mac Cool." The Irish word is Fiann (pronounced "Fee-an") and has nothing to do with Finn mac Cúmhail. In the genitive it is nà Féine (na Fayna). It is a noun of multitude, and means the Fenian body in general. The individual Fenian was called Féinnidhe, i.e., a member of the Fenian force. The bands of militia were called Fianna [Fee-ăn-a], The word is declined An Fhiann, na Féinne, do'n Fhéinn [In Eean, nă Fayn-a, don Aen] and its resemblance to the proper name Finn is only accidental. The English translation of Keating made early in the last century, by Dermot O'Conor, does not use the term "Fenian" at all, but translates the word by "Irish Militia." Nor does O'Halloran, in 1778, when he published his history, seem to have known the term. The first person who appears to have used it is Miss Brooke, as early as 1796: in her translation of some Ossianic pieces, I find the lines—

"He cursed in rage the Fenian chief And all the Fenian race."

I have been told that Macpherson had already used the word, but I have looked carefully through his Ossian and have not been able to find it. Halliday in his edition of Keating, in 1808, talks in a foot-note of "Fenian heroes." It was John O'Mahony the head-centre of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a brilliant Irish scholar and translator of Keating, who succeeded in perpetuating the ancient historic memory by christening the "men of '68" the "Fenians."